Harry Reid rips the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee after their unprecedented signed declaration to refuse to even consider any Supreme Court nominee put forth by President Obama.
February 24, 2016

Senator Harry Reid gave a blistering 10-minute speech regarding yesterday's signed declaration from the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee stating that they refuse to even meet with or consider any Supreme Court nominees that President Obama may put forward in the coming weeks and months. Mind you, President Obama has not even publicly stated a name or a timeline, yet the Republicans just shook their heads and said "nope, no, never gonna happen, nada, zilch" to any possible candidates.

This is unprecedented in U.S. History. Sure, candidates have been voted down, but the President has always been given the respect of having their nominees at least presented for consideration. Well, not with these Republicans. They are throwing the longest, most annoying tantrum ever. They are still super-duper angry that Obama got reelected and they are furious that they can't even get a Washington insider as the GOP leader for President.

They are reeling so what are they doing? What all toddlers do when they are having their candy taken away and being told to take a time out. They are falling to the ground, flailing their arms and legs, screaming at the top of their lungs and having a massive tantrum.

Here is some highlights of Harry Reid's excellent analysis of the situation:

"This is historically unbelievably, historically unprecedented. [They] won't give the confirmation process even a start, why? Because the person is being nominated by President Obama. Remember, the Republican leader said many years ago that the number one goal he had was to make sure President Obama was not reelected. That failed miserably, President won by 5 million votes. Everything has been done by the Republican members of the Senate to embarrass, obstruct, filibuster, anything that can be done to focus attention on President Obama, none of which has helped the country. Senator Grassley has surrendered every pretense of independence. [He has] let the Republican leaders annex into a narrow partisan mission of obstruction and gridlock."

"So partisan, in fact, that the senior Senator from Iowa won't respond to a personal invitation from the President inviting him to the White House to discuss the vacancy...think about that. The President calls a very senior Senator and he doesn't even respond to the president. This is a sad day for one of the proudest committees in the US Senate."

Reid asked the question that should weigh heavily on all Republican Senators facing tough reelection campaigns:

"Is this the legacy that he wants? Is this how he wants this committee remembered?"

Reid went on and dug the knife in a little deeper:

"Republicans are setting a dangerous precedent for future nominations, not only for the Supreme Court, but for the Senate itself as an institution....this is quite an achievement, but not one that should make you very proud."

Then, he threw some shade directly at Senator Grassley:

"Last week, no fewer than 6 Iowa newspapers issued scathing editorials calling on Senator Grassley to change course and to give the President Supreme Court nominees the respect they deserve."

Reid went on to read a variety of quotes from Iowa newspapers and he closed with the following statement:

"Just do your job"

It's fair to say that this is a sentiment held by most Americans, Senator Grassley. Please do your damn job.

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